This year my Inquiry has a main focus & a sub-focus. How this will turn out is still quite blurry but I do know my purpose.
My main focus is on the Reading Practice Intensive (RPI) where my role is to mentor 2 teachers in my team. I want to inquire into the shift in our Reading Programme and if the changes made will produce an increase in student engagement and achievement.
My sub-focus is a collaborative one with fellow CoL teachers (Dorothy Apelu, Robyn Anderson, Dianne Fisi'iahi & Amy Tofa) and looking at how we could limit the language hurdles faced in Y8-9 High School transition #WordConsciousness.
I am hoping that through RPI and the changes my team have implemented and will continue to make in our Reading Programme this year, a vocabulary list or bank of words could be generated (in collab with other CoL Kaiako), to assist our Y8 kids with their transition into Y9.
So far this year, my team and I have been working in the school hall in an MLE. We have about 72 kids and 3 teachers working in 1 space. It's been an interesting, yet positive experience. With both teachers in my team taking the RPI intensive, it only makes sense that we all follow this approach. We work quite collaboratively and plan this way too. We have implemented the reading task-board idea into our programme, it's very multi-modal, and we have teacher workbooks - this is to help us track learner progress, keep record of their levels, strengths & weaknesses and make further teacher notes about the child's learning throughout the year.
Through talanoa with my team, we identified spelling to be a weakness amongst our team. All students bring different understandings and practises to the conception of spelling. We were recommended a book called 'The Code'. Fortunately we have an expert teacher in our RT Lit team whose followed this spelling programme thoroughly in her practice. Upon rich discussion with Kate, she advised that we have the student sit the test so we can identify the appropriate rules they need to be taught. Good thing is, the rule comes with a particular spelling list. These are just one of the changes we're taking on board for 2023, to ensure our deliverance of Reading and the shift in our programme, proves to be a productive one.
Next steps:
- Have the students sit 'The Code' spelling test
- Have Kate or Amanda from RT Lit, come in to model how to teach particular 'spelling rules'
- Meet with the CoL collab teachers to further work on our inquiries and what to do this year to help with Y8-9 High School transition
- Continue to mentor my 2 RPI mentee teachers
